I think as a native Texan I have been privy to (and guilty of using) my fair share of “old-timey sayings.” In fact, my agriculture students at Northeast Texas Community College just love to ask for clarification of ones like “86th the noise” or “gobbldygook” or “hottsy tottsy”or “flapping your gums”.

One such colloquialism that I heard quite a bit growing up was “You just can’t get blood from a turnip!” – which basically meant that you were beyond broke and that whoever it was that you owed money to had about as much of a chance of squeezing blood out of a turnip as they would getting the money from your bank account!

Last May third marked the first monthly NTCC Farmer’s Market. As a last minute decision, I chose to have students harvest what was left of the turnips to sell on market day. Much to my surprise, we sold nearly all of them! In fact, the produce was in short supply at this unusually cool spring market. Over 100 market goers snapped up fresh produce, woodcrafts, sewing crafts and several came just for the $5 Natural Beef Burger Deal. In these times we are living in where every dollar counts, it is still great to see what happens when people pull together and BUY LOCAL. In fact, it seems that you can even manage to get “blood out of a turnip”.

Those with gardens, orchards, homemade woodcrafts, cookies and pastries, plants and small livestock, or even those with the wherewithal to gather dewberries from the pasture and roadsides who would like to make an extra dollar or two should plan to join us at our next Farmer’s Market. It will be held on Friday, June 7 beginning at 9 a.m. at the Elizabeth Hoggatt Whatley Ag Complex and Pavilion. We are currently taking registrations for farmers and vendors. There are booth spaces inside and out and even the outside spaces are covered. All items need to be handmade or home raised. Paid sponsorships are available for those who sell equipment and tools to be utilized in farm situations. At this time all booth spaces for farmers are at no charge. Additionally, we are seeking local talented musicians to help provide the perfect family atmosphere for our market.

If you are not growing your own groceries but would just like to eat like you do, come out and buy local and eat fresh. Perhaps you may even purchase some vegetable plants and begin to GROW LOCAL yourself! For more information on area farmer’s markets or this one, contact Rene’ McCracken at rmccracken@ntcc.edu or 903-434-8267.